religionisbullshit.net

Oh for fuc...

On the subject of loons being offended and/or appeased, a slow, oh so ironic round of applause please for the Tate gallery for deciding not to display an actually-not-at-all-offensive work of art for fear of upsetting Muslim sensibilities. Whoop-de-fucking-doo, people are not even waiting for the outrage these days, they're anticipating it in advance and censoring themselves. Ophelia Benson at Butterflies and Wheels does ferociously disgusted far better than I can, so over to her:

[Tate Britain] hadn't 'consulted' the cops or the Muslim Council of Britain? The MCB is running things now? People are supposed to 'consult' it? People who are wondering if a given piece of art might or might not be 'offensive' to Muslims are supposed to 'consult' the MCB? Because - what? They have such a good record on that kind of thing? What with boycotting the Holocaust, and thinking death is too good for Salman Rushdie?Why are they the people to consult? Why, why, why? They're just a self-appointed group, they're not elected, they're not representative, they're not 'the Muslim community' - why are they given some kind of de facto official role? Not that anyone should be given such a role, but that goes double for the MCB.

So the MCB wasn't consulted on this one. But you just know Sacranie'll keep piping up in similar situations where the person/group in question isn't quite so lacking in cojones as Tate Britian, saying the weaselly political version of "Hey, don't do anything that upsets us or you might push people into joining teh bombers!!!1 This we know for we are the true representatives of moderate Islam." Give the man another knighthood.

There's only one way to respond to offended religious sensibilites - so fucking what?